Adnan’s Lawyers Speak
Having never had an actual conversation with Cristina Gutierrez, I can’t say for sure how she felt about Adnan or his guilt or innocence. It would seem, from Episode 10, that she was broken up after the trial which could have been from either from her believing an innocent client just got convicted or that she just felt bad for having lost a trial. I can’t say for sure because from what I know she never spoke to Adnan or the family about it either.
His other attorneys did though. I visited Justin Brown, Adnan’s appellate attorney, yesterday to discuss the case and then asked if he would do a little update on the post-conviction as well as comment on how he feels about Adnan’s guilt or innocence
Serial Episode 10: Welcome To Our World
People may think the Muslims only became a fifth column in the US after 9/11, but that’s not quite true. Muslims, who are often thought of as Arabs (though only about 15% of Muslims in the world are Arab, and plenty of Arabs are not Muslim), have long been mistrusted and vilified in the US.
Serial Episode 10: A Mile In These Shoes
Christina may have been a diligent, smart, brilliant attorney in her prime (though she also failed to convey a plea offer to a client all the way back in 1999). But when her health was deteriorating and she knew she wasn’t able to handle the work (to the extent of having to lie to clients about having actually done the work), instead of stepping out of practice, she kept taking people’s money. Christina didn’t make a few mistakes, she made enough terrible decisions to break the record for complaints filed against an attorney in the state of Maryland.
Where It All Began
I’ve said from the beginning that as Serial winds down, I’ll release more documents, but at no point will I “trump” their work. I try at all times to stay at least half a step behind their narrative. From where I stand it looks like they’ve clearly moved on from the initial parts of the case and investigation, so I thought it was an appropriate time to release some documents in their entirety.
On Being Thankful
Thankfulness is the state of a gracious person, whether in adversity or prosperity, and this is a core value of all the religions, and of moral people in general. Counting your blessings and expressing gratitude (whether the Bible tells you to or Oprah tells you to) is proven to have mental health benefits, physical benefits, and of course strengthens and heals relationships. An attitude of gratitude is one I have yet to master, and I look to people like Adnan, who are patient and mindful in adversity, to school me on it.
Serial Episode 9: Deeper Into The Fog
The point being this: if Adnan was seen right before track practice, dressed for practice, close to 3pm and Hae was seen after 3 by Debbie, it doesn’t seem likely they ever even crossed paths after school. Hae left school and never made it to her next destination. How did she get sidetracked, and how much time did that leave for the crime to actually take place?
Meta To The Max
Earlier this year I hit a real low. A spiritual and emotional low on many levels, and on many issues, including Adnan’s case. I knew at that point that Sarah was still investigating, I didn’t know how it was going or what the end story would look like. I felt tired of praying and tired of everything. For the first time in my heart I felt like there was little hope, and maybe nothing would ever change. Maybe Adnan would die in prison and maybe those who loved him would die without ever having him home.
Serial Episode 8: Confirmation Bias FTW
For now my takeaway from this episode is this – its not just cops who work with a confirmation bias. It’s all of us. And the only way to overcome that bias is to get as thorough an investigation possible, as many facts on the table as are humanly possible, before drawing conclusions. But that wasn’t done in this case, and apparently isn’t done in most cases. And it’s how and why the system failed Adnan.
Serial Episode 7: In Which I Exhale
Basically everyone is really disturbed that their precious time was wasted with the irrelevant detail of THE INNOCENCE PROJECT TAKING THE CASE. I hate to break it to the folks at Slate** and elsewhere: this is not about you and your entertainment. The show is a vehicle to tell a story about real people. Real lives that have been devastated. Real opportunity for redemption if the Innocence Project comes through.
Serial Episode 6: The Worst of It
There isn’t necessarily anything nefarious in Kathy’s observation of Adnan, not even after they left the apartment and loitered in the car for a minute or so. Adnan seemed to be acting consistent with someone who was very high, and paranoid because he had to go somewhere, be somewhere, and needed to get rid of his high. I know exactly where he had to be, but will get to that later.